Dr. Lauren Onkey, vice president of education and public programs, on stage during Rock and Roll Nig

As we were preparing last week’s special Rock and Roll Night School on rock and roll holiday records, I was amazed at how many Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees had recorded a holiday record. So, being the obsessives that we are, the Education Department staff tried to figure out just how many there are. Here’s our preliminary stats. Note: for the purposes of discussion, we focused on inductees from the Performer and Early Influence category; we counted a band or a duo as one inductee (e.g., The Rolling Stones =1; Bob Dylan =1, etc.); and we included our newest group of inductees (ABBA, The Stooges, The Hollies, Jimmy Cliff, and Genesis). Here’s what we found:143 out of 255 Inductees have recorded a holiday record: 72%!

Here’s a list of special cases and bands that we didn’t include because one member recorded a holiday record:• Carl Perkins (played on instrumental versions of “Jingle Bells” and “White Christmas” with the Million Dollar Quartet, 12/4/56)• Buddy Holly (played backup guitar for Carolyn Hester, “Christmas in Killarney” and “Hurry Santa Hurry,” June 6-7, 1958)• ZZ Top (Billy Gibbons recorded “Run, Run Rudolph” with Lemmy from Motorhead and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, 2008)• ABBA (Agnetha Faltskog recorded a Swedish Christmas record, Nu tändas tusen juleljus, in 1980)• Genesis (Phil Collins played drums on “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in 1984)• The Stooges (Iggy Pop recorded a version of “White Christmas” in 2009)• The Police (Sting recorded several songs for A Very Special Christmas 1 (1987) and 3 (1997), in addition to 2009’s If On A Winter’s Night)• Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks recorded “Silent Night” for A Very Special Christmas 1, 1987)• Parliament-Funkadelic (Bootsy Collins recorded the Christmas album Christmas is 4 Ever in 2006)• Creedence Clearwater Revival (Doug Clifford & Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revisited recorded “Run Rudolph Run”, 2009)• The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards “Run Rudolph Run”; Mick Jagger & Joss Stone “Lonely Without You (This Christmas)”)

The Rock Hall Blog

This is where we will post insights from Rock Hall staff and guest writers about exhibits, events, concerts and more with an emphasis on lesser known facets of the Rock Hall. Consider this your backstage pass.